Car Repossession Laws in Georgia

[CampOne]

This has been a really difficult day. My husband was behind two payments and was trying to catch up. We were out of town and received a notice Wednesday late afternoon (mail comes around 4pm-5pm) that we are a "valued" customer and to call to make arrangements for payment - which we were going to do the next day.

I put the notice by the phone and the next morning, I was woken up by a repo-person. I have never had a car repossessed and was confused. I asked him for the paperwork for which he said he had none so the loan must have been a "signature" loan and then he took the car (jeep).

My husband called the lender and inquired about this and was told that he had to pay off the car in full rather than the amount owed. He tried to work with them stating that he just got the notice and had no way of knowing if the person who took the car was a valid repo person because there was nothing to prove it.

We searched GA law and found that a repo company (or person) must notify the local police before or within 24 hours of claiming the car so we checked to verify that I, in my confusion, gave the car to a "real" repo-person rather than a thief. No notice was filed. In addition, they (the lender) claim a check was bounced for the last payment of which we have no notice of in our bank statements or otherwise and asked if we could send this information along with our "valued customer" notice.

They said no and were very nasty as if we were more than a couple of months behind. Yes, they do have the right to repossess, but my question is: what are the consumer's rights if they (the lender and their assigned, alleged repo-company) do not follow protocol?

Also, in GA, the law has been updated so that the license plate is issued to the person not the car and we should be able to obtain it - but they will not tell us where the car is.

And one other thing, we notified them that the doors were off the vehicle and are in our garage (it's a jeep after all) and that if they tried to sell it without these then that would de-value the vehicle and make it sell for less thus making us owe them more. We asked them what we needed to do about that - in order to return them if we cannot work this out - and they basically said it was our tough luck.

Looks like no help from this lender - I am surprised, but the local police want to make a report against the repo-person/company since they didn't file any information as is required by law.

What are our rights as consumers on this as it sounds as if no matter what we try to do to correct this, they are not helping? - and even if they sell it, they seem unwilling to make it sell for what it is worth (a car without doors??)

Any advice or pointers on where to find GA or federal laws on this??

[Mr. Knowitall]

I doubt that there is a remedy against the lender, as they were within their rights to repossess the car. I doubt that there is a remedy against the repo man, as his failure to notify the police didn't have any effect on you.

It would be wise, if you can, to pay off the car rather than having it be sold for a pittance at auction.

[CampOne]

The problem is that even though we would, they will not discuss obtaining the "remainder" of the vehicle (i.e. "the doors") -- I want this resolved and if
they have to sell it, then we should at least have the benefit of giving back what it is worth -- we did take very good care of it. How can we do that?

And I appreciate your reply!

[seniorjudge]

The problem is that even though we would, they will not discuss obtaining the "remainder" of the vehicle (i.e. "the doors") -- I want this resolved and if
they have to sell it, then we should at least have the benefit of giving back what it is worth -- we did take very good care of it. How can we do that?

And I appreciate your reply!

They will sell the car and there will not be enough to pay for the money you borrowed; you will then get a deficiency judgment against you for the balance of what you owe.

[CampOne]

Thank you for your response -- but again, what can we do to get the remaining items to them and to obtain the items in the vehicle (our tag which is GA law) to us? I find it extremely difficult to believe that there are no rights for consumers on this.

[aaron]

I don't recall you previously mentioning that you had belongings in the vehicle. An initial suggestion: Contact the lot where the vehicle is being stored about retrieving your belongings.

[devinedesign]

May I ask where you found the Georgia law on repossession?

[aaron]

You can access the Georgia Code here. It's, unfortunately, not very user-friendly.